Yahoo! and Microsoft are entering a race to see how many people they can boot off their instant messaging networks. First, Microsoft made MSN unavailable to netizens (like me) using 3rd party software. Yahoo! promptly did the same thing this weekend. I’ve been using Bitlbee for a few months now, however, two of the four protocols that I used are now broken. It’s like the phone company insisting that you have to buy _their_ phone to talk on _their_ network. Oh, and don’t think AIM/ICQ are any better, they intentionally broke Trillian at least 5 times before giving up. So, if you’re wondering why I’m no longer on MSN or Yahoo, now you know.